MINNEAPOLIS — Street sweeping is in full swing across Minneapolis and other cities across the metro. But this year, some people say the City of Minneapolis didn't notify them in time and towed their vehicles.
Some residents are also reporting it was expensive and downright not safe to try and get their vehicles back.
Dianne Laub and Brian Cole spent three hours at the Minneapolis impound lot on Wednesday night after their car was towed.
"As we were there, there was tow truck after tow truck bringing in additional cars," said Laub. "I guess this is a city-wide effort because we heard people talking about where their car had been parked in different areas of town."
The couple says their 2016 Subaru was parked outside an apartment near Bde Maka Ska Lake. They're in town from Oklahoma, visiting their daughter, and are adamant they weren't warned about fall street sweeping.
The Minneapolis Public Works Department was supposed to start sweeping on Oct. 20, but it was delayed until Oct. 26 due to the early snowstorm.
The City of Minneapolis clears about a thousand miles of roads of debris and leaves to keep them out of storm drains and from ending up in local lakes and rivers.
"We do not want people to be ticketed and towed," said Public Works Director Robin Hutcheson. "We want people to have all the information they need to avoid that."
Hutcheson says in Laub's case, they are confident they followed protocol and notified that neighborhood about Wednesday's street sweeping.
Part of that protocol includes putting up "No Parking" signs 24 hours before crews clean each particular street. The signs are then taken down when they're done. There's also an interactive map to find out when the sweepers will be coming through each neighborhood, along with an automated phone call that goes out to about 3,000 people. Laub said she never received a phone call and she didn't see the posted signs until after her car had been towed.
"There just has to be some better way to notify people that this is going to happen and a $138 tow fee is absolutely ridiculous in this day and time," said Laub, who is also concerned about COVID-19. "And then to make you go and wait in a crowded, congested room during covid."
She said, at times, there were up to 50 people waiting in a room in a building at the impound lot full of frustrated people all trying to retrieve their cars that they claim were similarly towed.
The Public Works Department says it didn't tow people's vehicles during the sweep that took place in the springtime, when COVID-19 shutdowns were in full effect. Minneapolis officials are now asking people to refamiliarize themselves with the rules again - especially since street sweeping this fall will continue through the week of Nov. 16.